CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND
HOMOSEXUALITY

This report consists of two articles,
the first from a newspaper; the second, from an independent Roman
Catholic journal. They will provide you with a picture of the
ever-increasing decadence that is occurring in the Roman Catholic
priesthood. The data reported below concerns their U.S. priesthood; but
the situation is probably similar, perhaps worse, elsewhere in the
world.

Such decadence has always existed in
the Catholic priesthood; but, as the first article reveals, AIDS death
records provide a new way to identify its homosexual aspects. (Not
reported here are the millions of dollars won by individuals, against
the church in court cases, which reveal the heterosexual depravity
within the church.)

The second article clearly shows that
this depravity has increased to such an extent in U.S. Catholic
seminaries, that church leaders are abandoning all attempts to stop it.

For hundreds of years, Rome has insisted
that none of its priests can marry. This enforced celebacy is the reason
why there are so many homosexual priests. Since the church is full of men
living alone in their rooms, it is a place that attracts gays to join the
priesthood.

Contrary to the Word of God, Rome
forbids the marriage of priests. Canon law declares it to be sinful for a
priest to marry. But the Bible teaches something quite different. It
denounces the forbidding of marriage as "a doctrine of devils" (1
Timothy 4:1-3). "Now, a bishop then must be blameless, the
husband of one wife . . One that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule
his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" (1
Timothy 3:2-5). Paul was not married, but he claimed for himself the
right to have a wife, just as Peter and other apostles had wives (1
Corinthains 9:5). The Word of God says: "It is not good that man
should be alone" (Genesis 2:18).

A.W. Richard Sips, a former priest who
has spent over 30 years studying sexuality issues in the Roman Catholic
Church, thinks about 750 priests nationwide have died of such illnesses.
This means an AIDS related death rate eight times that of the general
population. Joseph Barone, a New Jersey psychiatrist and AIDS expert, puts
the number of U.S. priests who have died at 1,000—nearly 11 times the
rate of the general population. (See U.S. News and World Report,
February 14, 2000, and articles quoted below.)

AIDS Deaths among Priests
Higher than Estimated

St. Louis Post Dispatch
- November 5, 2000

"Kansas City—Concern within the
Roman Catholic Church about the number of priests who have died of
AIDS-related illnesses is growing, as is evidence that the death rate
exceeds earlier estimates.

"In January, the Kansas City Star
reported that hundreds of priests had died of AIDS-related illnesses and
that hundreds more were living with the virus that causes the disease.

"Since then, the Star has
documented more than 300 AIDS-related priest deaths nationwide through
death certificates and interviews with family members and religious
colleagues. The newspaper examined documents in 14 states in which
thousands of death certificates were available. The Star found that
the AIDS death rate among priests was more than double that of all adult
males in those states and more than six times that of the general
population in those states.

"Those AIDS-related death rates
exceeded the estimates and projections reported earlier this year by the
newspaper.

"But on Friday, Sister Mary Ann
Walsh, spokeswoman for the conference of bishops, said the number of
priests who have died is small when compared with the total priest
population. Still, Walsh said, ‘three hundred priests dying of AIDS are
300 personal tragedies.’

"Walsh said that the church had
been active in dealing with the AIDS issue, and that seminary formation
programs today were doing a better job of educating priests about
sexuality issues.

" ‘Of course, ordination does not
immunize you from temptation,’ she said. ‘I wish there were no one
else who died of AIDS. But the reality is, it happens. It shouldn’t
happen. People fail. It’s part of the human condition.’

"More voices of concern are urging
the church’s hierarchy to open a dialogue on how to prevent priests from
dying of AIDS.

" ‘The fact that you have priests
having very active sexual lives, that you have priests contracting HIV and
dying of AIDS and that they have refused to come to terms with this and
tend to deny it, I don’t see how you look at this and not say that these
are symptoms of an unresolved sexual problem within the church,’ said
Eugene Kennedy, a former priest and biographer of the late Cardinal Joseph
Bernardin of Chicago."—St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 5,
2000.

How Seminaries Weed Out Faithful Catholics

By Paul Likoudis

The Wanderer - A Roman Catholic
[Independent] Weekly

"In early 1980, the Vatican’s
Congregation for Catholic Education issued a circular letter to all Latin
rite bishops on seminaries, providing guidelines for the correct
spiritual, disciplinary, liturgical, and intellectual formation of
candidates to the priesthood. If the norms proposed by Rome were followed,
the letter said, the vocations crisis afflicting the Church would vanish.

"Twenty years later, that circular
letter — which called for renewed attention to the study of Latin and
Greek, the fathers of the Church, the Latin liturgical tradition; to the
importance of eucharistic adoration and the Liturgy of the Hours; to the
necessity of seminarians dressing in appropriate clerical garb — is a
dead letter in many, if not most, dioceses in the United States. And the
vocations crisis continues.

"Indeed, Roger Cardinal Mahony of
Los Angeles — whose St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo remains
unreformed — wrote last April in his pastoral letter on ‘ministry’
that the precipitous decline in the number of Ordinations since the
mid-1960s is ‘one of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council.’

"For many Catholics, however, it is
also becoming ever more clear that the so-called vocations crisis is the
product of episcopal dereliction of duty in the face of a deliberate
strategy on the part of many to corrupt the priesthood, gut the Church’s
sacramental system, and transform the Church into one of the welfare state’s
subsidized service providers: a eunuch for the Kingdom of Man.

"At St. John’s Seminary, in
Bernard Cardinal Law’s Archdiocese of Boston, for example, a former
seminarian recently confided to The Wanderer that ‘if you support
the Pope and Church teaching, you’re out. You have to be one foxy
seminarian to survive, because most of the professors are hunting for
Catholics. If they find out you’re orthodox, you’re blackballed, and
you’ll never be ordained out of St. John’s, and you’ll never be able
to get into most other diocesan seminaries.’

"The seminarian told a story of a
fellow classmate, who was being aggressively pursued by a homosexual
seminarian. He went to the administration to complain, but the
administration did nothing. So the harassed seminarian went to the local
police, and obtained a restraining order against the homosexual
seminarian. ‘The aggressive guy is still at St. John’s,’ the
seminarian told The Wanderer, ‘and is awaiting Ordination.
Meanwhile, the good guy’s gone.’

"The seminarian who finally left
St. John’s after three years recalled his bitter experience.

" ‘I thought when I entered the
place it would have a Christian atmosphere,’ he said. ‘But the place
is so homosexual that homosexuality is all that matters. When one student
complained to the faculty he was being terrorized by a homosexual, no one
listened, nobody cared.’

" ‘Does Cardinal Law know about
this?’ The Wanderer asked.

" ‘If he doesn’t, shame on him.
If he does, that’s worse. For him to plead ignorance, however, doesn’t
make sense. He’s the commander. Everything that happens there is his
responsibility. Fr. Bob Flagg, the vocations director for the Boston
Archdiocese, is the dean of the seminary. He’s also the president of the
National Association of Diocesan Vocations Directors. He certainly knows
what’s going on there, as does Fr. Tom Nestor, the dean of students.’

"Despite his experiences, the
former seminarian still wants to be a priest, but he says that he can
never be a diocesan priest, in Boston or anywhere else.

" ‘Fr. Flagg has blackballed me,’
he said, ‘and I’ll never get into any diocesan seminary.’

"In the current (July/August)
edition of the St. Catherine Review, editor and publisher Michael
Rose, author of The Renovation Manipulation, provides some previews
of his work-in-progress on the ‘vocation manipulation,’ showing how,
more than 20 years into the pontificate of John Paul II, bishops continue
to allow their seminaries to be cesspools of heresy, liturgical abuses,
psychological terrorism, and moral turpitude while modernist professors
and administrators, trapped in ’60s notions of ‘with-it-ness,’
follow the tried and true methods of ecclesial deconstruction.

"Sacred Heart, still firmly in
control by the aging Call to Actionites who run the archdiocesan
bureaucracy, is held in such low esteem by Detroit priests that they
advise young men who think they have a vocation to the priesthood to study
for other dioceses, and, in fact, observes Rose, there are often more
Detroit men ordained as priests for other dioceses than for Detroit.

"Titled, ‘I’d Burn it Down. . .
. if it Wasn’t a Sin,’ the preview consists of an interview with
former seminarian Jason Dull, 24, now studying with the Benedictines at
Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery in Clear Creek, Okla.

"In the interview, Dull speaks of
his spiritual awakening as a Catholic at World Youth Day in Denver seven
years ago, of his decision to go to a Catholic high school in Detroit,
where he ended up arguing with his religion teacher ‘about Scripture and
all kinds of things. It was ridiculous: drugs, sex, teachers abusing
students; it went on and on and on.’

"Undaunted, he decided to apply to
the seminary, and was accepted. His first experience at Sacred Heart on a
‘discernment weekend’ was watching the movie Clueless, with about 30
other young men, a tasteless film featuring young girls in miniskirts and
halter tops. No one objected, primarily out of fear.

" ‘I soon came to find that the
attitude at the seminary was this,’ said Dull. ‘Any objection or
dislike of such movies and practices must mean one has difficulties with
maturity, and has sociological and psychological problems, rigorisms.
After all, you must be in the world, they say. If it is accepted in
society, well, hey, why not? Their overall idea on everything is similar.
For instance, if the parish you get assigned to does not follow the
Sacramentary, then that’s their local custom, their culture, and who are
you to stop their practices? That’s the general attitude.’

"Dull relates his experiences with
the ‘formation director’ at Sacred Heart, a priest who extolled the
value of watching hard-core pornography; of seminary faculty who led
students on ‘pilgrimage’ to Las Vegas for a ‘festive orgy’ and a
gambling spree; of irreverent liturgies; of violations of the seal of
Confession; of heretical professors; and of the psychological abuse of ‘orthodox’
seminarians.

"At one point in the interview,
Rose asked Dull: ‘Can you give us some idea about the psychological
screening process involved when you applied for admission to the seminary?’

"Dull answered: ‘It’s a
catastrophe. The shrink that I went to charged the Archdiocese of Detroit
around $100 an hour. My screening took about eight hours. The most
drop-dead gorgeous woman was my shrink. The first test I was given was
about 500 questions; another had about 100. Then there were some puzzles
to put together. She asked me questions, as part of one test, such as, How
often do you masturbate? fishing for other interior knowledge that is a
matter for the confessor alone, not some psychologist. . . . Who is this
woman, I wondered. Is she a Catholic? Is she even Christian?’

"Later, Rose asked: ‘How is that
orthodox seminarians are offended? I’ll let you count the ways.’

"Dull responded: ‘Let’s look at
the issue of psychological abuse. Every orthodox seminarian that I knew of
while I was at the seminary was sent to a shrink or was going to be sent
to a shrink, myself included. I quit when the writing was on the wall that
I was next. I would have finished my second year if I had stayed another
two weeks to finish my finals. But I dropped out then because I didn’t
want to be sent to a shrink. My true spiritual director (outside the
seminary, a good and holy priest) told me I was being ‘weeded out.’ So
I said, no thanks, I’ve already been to the shrink once. No thank you.’

"The seminarians forced to see the
psychiatrist,’ Dull continued, ‘told him they were being sent for
rigorism, which was really a stout-heartedness in the faith, which we
ought to have. . . . They were sent for ongoing counseling. If a
seminarian missed one of his counseling sessions, then the seminary would
know about it immediately. There was nothing more strictly mandated —
including celibacy — than going to your counseling sessions. You were to
comply, and if you didn’t you were out. No two ways about it.’

"Sacred Heart Seminary was also a
hothouse of ‘political correctness’ Dull said, where the use of ‘inclusive
language’ was mandated.

" ‘I was ordered in the seminary
by my rhetoric teacher to use inclusive language. If I used standard
English (correct traditional grammar), I was marked down. In other words,
I was not able to use the type of language Jesus used.’

‘The strangest phenomena at Sacred
Heart,’ Dull continued, ‘were the efforts by the seminary staff and
administration to downplay religion. For example, there was a rule that
prohibited seminarians from praying more than 15 minutes a day. Praying
the rosary in the hallways was forbidden; spiritual direction consisted of
weight-lifting sessions; and first-year students were not permitted to
take religion classes.

" ‘I insisted upon having at
least one religion class each semester,’ Dull said at one point. ‘They
did not like that at all. I had to fight and yell just to be allowed to
take one religion course. Could you imagine that? In the seminary not
being required to take a religion course each semester? I said I’d quit
if I cannot have even one class about religion, and that caused trouble.
The priests heard this and said, Jason has a problem. We have a rigid one
here. We have to weed this boy out.’ "

"The Role of the Bishop

"So what is the role of Detroit
Auxiliary Bishop Allen Vigneron, Sacred Heart’s rector for the past six
years?

"Dull gives Vigneron credit for
having an ‘orthodox vision’ for Sacred Heart. However, Dull asserts,
the bishop lacks the fortitude to apply that ‘vision’ out of fear of
offending the old guard.

"He cites Vigneron’s attempt to
restore Latin and Gregorian Chant to the liturgy. Referring to an article
that appeared recently in Adoremus, which praised Vigneron for
taking a national lead in training seminarians in the traditional music of
the Church, Dull comments:

" ‘The article implies to the
reader that Latin and chant are a norm. But this is definitely not the
norm. The author of the article knows that. Everyone who attends Sacred
Heart knows that. Most of the music we used at the seminary was the faux
folk variety from the Gather hymnal, which includes hymns
written by Martin Luther.

" ‘We rarely sang either the Agnus
Dei or the Sanctus in Latin. If we were lucky, we’d sing the Kyrie,
which is Greek. Once in a while there would be a Mass in which the Agnus
Dei and Sanctus were in Latin. But that was rare, maybe once a
month. But when we had the big benefactors present at the Christmas and
Easter Masses, we would pull out the Gregorian Chant. The whole article
states accurately Bishop Vigneron’s intentions—which are great,
but they have not come to fruition.’

"And why is that? Rose asks.

" ‘1 don’t know,’ Dull
responds. ‘It’s beyond me. That attitude seems to be, ‘this is a
place where we all feel at home and no one should be offended,’ yet —
predictably — the orthodox seminarians are often offended and no one,
including the bishop, seems to care much about that.’

"Rose’s interview with Dull ends
with Dull’s recommendations for a genuine reform of Sacred Heart:
complete segregation of new seminarians from upper-class seminarians and
from the liberal faculty; formation of a new faculty that is faithful to
the teachings of the Church; a phasing out of the old faculty ‘so that
none are left by the eighth year’; abandoning the seminary code — with
its prohibitions against prayer — and ‘starting over.’ "—Paul
Likoudis, "How Seminaries Weed Out Faithful Catholics," in The
Wanderer, a Roman Catholic [Independent] Weekly. October 2000.

The Changing Face of the Priesthood

Book by Donald Cozzens

Donald Cozzens is a leading American
Roman Catholic churchman and is head of St. Mary’s Seminary in
Cleveland, Ohio. He claims that the Roman Catholic priesthood has become
"primarily a gay culture." His report on the present state of
the Roman Catholic priesthood in America is astounding. Contained in a
149-page book, it unveils what is taking place and why.

Cozzens says that an increasing number
of experienced priests are leaving the priesthood in order to get married.
A related problem is that they are tired of resisting homosexual priests.

This exodus has drastically altered the
ratio of gays to non-gays in the priesthood.

Cozzens says: "At issue at the
beginning of the 21st century is the growing preception that the
priesthood is, or is becoming, a gay profession. Heterosexual seminarians
are made uncomfortable by the number of gays around them."

Special Report -The Remnant

A National Catholic Bi-Weekly

August 15, 2000

Reprinted from 'Scotland on Sunday'

A Roman Catholic Journal

Noel Young June 11, 2000

This report, originally printed in Scotland
on Sunday, and reprinted in The Remnant, includes a comment by
Dean Hoge, a specialist on the pristhood at Catholic University of
America, in Washington, D.C. He describes Cozzens’ book as "the
most important we have seen on Catholic priests for years."

Bishop Robert Morneau, another leading
Catholic, praised Cozzens’ book: "I think he raises some very
important issues. We need to know what’s going on."

Over the past decade or so, a number of
news stories have been printed about priests that have led young boys into
sexual relationships. Many very expensive lawsuits have resulted, which
cost Rome a lot of money.

Morneau explains the significance of
this:

"The Catholic Church in America has
paid out millions of dollars in child sex abuse cases. Cozzens points out
that most priests who are abusers target teenage boys, unlike other child
abusers who tend to target girls." The problem is that far too many
of the priests are homosexual.

Morneau continues: "Figures for the
number of homosexual priests in the American Church are very difficult to
pin down. Cozzens says estimates range up to 60 percent."

Here is the complete report, originally
printed in Scotland on Sunday:

"A leading American churchman is
claiming that the Roman Catholic priesthood has become ‘primarily a gay
culture’ that deters heterosexual men from taking up vocations.

"The Changing Face of the
Priesthood, by Father Donald Cozzens, says an
exodus of experienced priests from the church, many of them to marry, has
drastically altered the gay-straight ratio. ‘At issue at the beginning
of the 21st century is the growing perception that the priesthood is, or
is becoming, a gay profession,’ Cozzens writes. ‘Heterosexual
seminarians are made uncomfortable by the number of gays around them.’

" ‘The straight seminarian feels
out of place and may interpret his inner destabilization as a sign that he
does not have a vocation for the priesthood.’

"Cozzens, a priest for 35 years, is
head of St. Mary’s Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. He does not go into
whether gay priests indulging in sexual relations are violating vows of
celibacy, but he says: ‘The sexual contacts and romantic unions among
gay seminarians create intense and complicated webs of intrigue and
jealousy.’

"Dean Hoge, a specialist on the
priesthood at the Catholic University of America, describes the Cozzens
book, now on sale in Ireland and Scotland, as ‘the most important we
have seen on Catholic Priests for years.’

"Bishop Robert Morneau praised the
author. ‘I think he raises some very important issues,’ he said. ‘We
need to look at what’s going on.’

"Cozzens was well aware he was
stirring up a storm when he wrote his book. After one interview. with the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, which provoked calls for his resignation as
rector of the local seminary, he has stopped giving interviews. He told
the reporter: ‘I had to write this book. Parts of it have been
percolating in my soul since my days teaching at college.

" ‘I don’t think we, in the
Church, have asked ourselves what is God’s spirit saying to us through
these most recent crises—the sexual misconduct with minors and the large
numbers of priests who have stepped away from their calling. Cozzens
covers many other ills of the priesthood in his book, but it is chapter
seven, Considering Orientation, that has drawn all the attention.
‘I confess to a certain anxiety as I begin this reflection on
homosexuality and the priesthood,’ he writes.

" ‘Whatever it said about such a
sensitive and complex issue is open to misunderstanding and seeming
insensitivity. Some will deny the reality that many observers see as
changing the face of the priesthood—that the percentage of homosexual
priests and seminarians is significantly higher than society at large.

" ‘Others will see any attention
given to the phenomenon as a symptom of the homophobia that is
characteristic of individuals with less than open minds. Still others will
wonder what difference sexual orientation makes in the celibate lives of
priests.’

"Cozzens says the need gay priests
have for friendship with other gay men, and their shaping of a social life
largely comprised of other homosexually oriented men, has created a gay
subculture in most of the larger US dioceses.

"The Catholic Church in America has
paid out many millions of dollars in child sex abuse cases. Cozzens points
out that most priests who are abusers target teenage boys, unlike most
other child abusers who tend to target girls. Figures for the number of
homosexual priests in the American Church are very difficult to pin down.
Cozzens says estimates range up to 60 percent.

"Cozzens is not against ordaining
gay men, and he concedes some effective bishops and even some popes may
have been gay. But, he argues, an overwhelmingly gay clergy affects how
lay people view the priesthood and also the intake of recruits. He says
the priesthood’s crisis and the Church’s crisis of soul is in part a
crisis of orientation.

"Sooner or later the issue will be
faced more forthrightly than it has been in the closing days of the 20th
century. The longer the delay, the greater the harm to the priesthood and
to the Church."

On the Crisis in the Priesthood

Priest Robert J. Egan

The Commonweal - A Catholic Weekly
-August 11, 2000

Egan is a Jesuit who teaches theology
and spirituality at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. This lead
article, in The Commonweal, is as remarkable for its admissions as
all the others. Apparently, Catholic leaders are so deeply concerned about
the gradual takeover of the Catholic Church in America by homosexuals,
that they are beginning to publicly write in journals primarily read by
fellow priests and leaders. They want the Vatican to do something about
the problem!

Here is part of Egan’s article, from The
Commonweal:

"Donald B. Cozzens has published
one of the most honest and thoughtful reflections on the state of the
Roman Catholic priesthood in the United States that have appeared so far.

"Cozzens is president-rector and
professor of pastoral theology at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School
of Theology in Cleveland. Although brief, The Changing Face of the
Priesthood distills over 30 years of the author’s experience as a
priest, college teacher, spiritual director for priests, vicar for clergy
and religious, and administrator and superior of a seminary community.

"The most serious problem facing us
today in arriving at a more adequate understanding of the priesthood,
theologically and practicality, is a widespread inhibition of speech
within the Catholic community. For various reasons, to the great detriment
of the church, its credibility and its mission, too many have felt
reluctant or unable to say what they see and what they think. Cozzens’
most important virtue is his courage to say what his experience has taught
him. For this alone, his book deserves a wide and respectful readership.

"Cozzens invites his readers to ask
themselves to what extent we in the church truly value candor and
intellectual honesty. ‘Some priests have lost confidence in their
chanceries and seminaries,’ he writes. ‘Even the best of bishops and
chancery staffs can be caught in the grip of institutional paralysis and
denial. They sense a reluctance on the part of diocesan officials to
listen to the import of their own data if the data suggest structural or
policy changes that are not in harmony with traditional or current church
practices.

"This silence and denial affect the
church’s reaction to the rising average age of the clergy, parishes
without resident pastors, the closing or twinning of parishes, overwork
and discouragement among priests, and clergy misconduct with minors, as
well as the decreasing percentage of heterosexual men in the seminaries
and the priesthood.

"In what will probably be one of
the most discussed chapters in the book, Cozzens carefully— and somewhat
nervously—takes up the issue of sexual orientation as it affects the
priesthood. Citing several different estimates— and explaining why they
can only be estimates—he seems to suggest that perhaps 50 percent of our
priests and seminarians have a homosexual orientation, possibly an even
higher percentage among those under forty. If this estimate is close to
the truth, then half of all our priests and seminarians are being
recruited from roughly 5 to 8 percent of the general population of
American Catholic men. This is a very sobering statistic.

"It seems to me unreasonable to
presume that the percentage of gay American Catholics who enter the
seminary or religious life has risen dramatically in the last 30 years.
There are altered cultural factors that tend to support the opposite
assumption. Given the severity of the priest shortage, the problem isn’t
that we have ‘too many’ gay men in the clergy. The problem seems to be
a precipitous decline in vocations among the roughly 92 to 95 percent of
American Catholic men who are heterosexual.

"Cozzens is clearly concerned about
this trend, although he doesn’t claim to know what conclusions should be
drawn from it. At several points, he raises a concern that heterosexual
seminarians, finding themselves in social environments with a large
percentage of gay men, may feel ‘destabilized’ by this experience; may
suffer a loss of morale, and may interpret their sense of alienation as a
sign that they do not belong in the priesthood. Although he says less
about it, gay seminarians, meanwhile, often find themselves in situations
that encourage repression, equivocation, and dissembling, and sometimes
the kind of self-contempt that spills over in the treatment of other
people.

"In concluding the book, Cozzens
reviews the crises in the church that are most affecting the souls of
priests today. First, of course, there is the vocation crisis: a dramatic
growth in the Catholic population, a severe drop in the number of priests,
and a significant rise in the average age of priests. Because of this
shortage, priests work longer hours, often at multiple locations, and they
retire at an older age. They work under considerable stress in a highly
polarized church, and they now usually live alone. ‘Twenty years ago
there was approximately one priest for every 1,000 Catholics; in 2005 the
ratio is likely to be one priest to every 2,200 of the faithful.’
Already more than a quarter of Catholic parishes lack a full-time priest.

"Cozzens tries to sort out some of
the factors contributing to this picture, emphasizing the reluctance of
many Catholic women to encourage their sons to consider vocations to the
priesthood. He concludes with strong words from an address by Father
Norman Rotert, a former Kansas City-Saint Joseph vicar general:

" ‘The paternalistic attitudes,
the increasing consciousness of women, the lack of appreciation for the
value of celibacy, the large percentage of gay priests, the pedophilia
crisis, all have so impacted our vocation recruitment efforts that I see
no possibility of salvaging the priesthood, as we know it today. We must
talk about the issue if we are going to find a creative solution.’

"Second, there is an authority
crisis. Cozzens describes a process whereby ‘the church’s teaching
office saw its power to enlighten and reconcile, to challenge and
encourage, diminished by its unwillingness to listen seriously to those
outside the inner corridors of the Vatican establishment.’ As a result,
he argues, our bishops have ‘lost a good deal of their credibility.’
In a democratic culture, effective teaching needs to be dialogical to be
persuasive. Assertion by itself in unconvincing. ‘Practicing Catholics,
in large numbers,’ he says, ‘simply bracketed policies and lower-level
church teachings that didn’t square with their experience.’

"Third, there is what Cozzens terms
an ‘orientation crisis,’ a growing perception that priesthood is
becoming or has already become a ‘gay option.’ I believe we should see
this as one aspect of something broader: a crisis in the public meaning of
religious celibacy. The celibate life of priests has had its ‘witness’
value considerably muddled by studies that indicate a high percentage of
sexually active priests; by perceptions that half or more of our priests
are homosexual, whose choice of celibacy therefore has multiple and
undecidable meanings; by serious psychological, philosophical, and
theological criticism of the traditional rationales for mandatory priestly
celibacy, especially for the celibacy of diocesan priests; and by the deep
disappointment and shock caused by sexual scandals and lawsuits involving
priests, brothers, and bishops. This crisis is also related to the ‘developmental’
problems the book describes. The aura of emotional immaturity among some
members of the clergy can make their celibacy look like a flight from
intimacy and commitment.

"Fourth, there is an intellectual
crisis. Being a responsible and engaged Catholic in our society is
complicated and demanding. More than ever, the community needs leadership
that is intelligent, learned, and discerning. But priests who are serving
two or three parishes do not have time to do serious reading or engage in
sustained reflection."

"Homosexualist Alliances Abound
in Amchurch Entanglements"

Article in The Wanderer

A Roman Catholic Weekly
June 8, 2000

"The emergence of the National
Catholic AIDS Network [NCAN], headquartered in the scandal-plagued Santa
Rosa Diocese, as a lead agency promoting AIDS education in Catholic
parishes is an illustration of how the Catholic bishops have allowed
homosexual activists to use church resources to promote the gay agenda.

"The NCAN enjoys official
recognition by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and has Bishop
Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., as its Episcopal moderator.

"At last year’s NCAN annual
gathering, Bishop Hubbard praised Cape Town South Africa Auxiliary Bishop
Reginald Cawcutt as an exemplar of progressive leadership on AIDS issues
in the Catholic Church.

"Cawcutt made headlines around the
world earlier this year when he was exposed as the [homosexual web chat
room] moderator and a regular chatter on the St. Sebastian’s Angels
website for gay clerics who engaged in explicit chat about their
homosexual lifestyles, expressed their contempt for the church’s moral
teaching, and mocked Pope John Paul II and members of his Curia, most
notably Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger."

"Irish Theologian Urges Greater
Acceptance of Gays in Church"

Religious News Service
March 13, 2000

"A call for Christians to welcome
homosexuals into the church as a source of enrichment has come from the
eminent Irish moral theologian, the R__ Enda McDonagh in a London speech
to the Roman Catholic caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.

"Challenging lesbian, and gay
Catholics to draw on their own experience of exclusion and suffering to
help bring justice and peace to church and society, McDonagh said, ‘I
honestly believe the challenge for lesbian and gay Catholics now is how
you can set the most of us free, enrich the community to which we belong,
to let your vision and realization of the values of the kingdom be free to
free us in an important way."

"Catholic Priests Are Dying of AIDS,
Often in Silence"

Kansas City Star January 2000

This was a bombshell article, for it was
the first one on this subject to be extensively reported in the U.S.
press. It discussed the careful investigation conducted over a number of
years by Thomas Crangle, a Franciscan priest in the Capuchin order in
Passaic, N.J. He has extensively studied the issue of AIDS within the
Catholic Church. In 1990, Crangle conducted a mail survey of hundreds of
priests selected at random.

"Crangle said that of the 500
surveys he sent, 398 were returned. About 45 percent of those responding
volunteered that they were gay, and 92—nearly one-fourth—said they had
AIDS. ‘I was surprised,’ Crangle said. ‘I felt there was a problem,
but I didn’t think it was of that magnitude.’ "

"The Battle over Gay Clergy"

Time Magazine November 13, 1989

"Just how common is homosexuality
among the Catholic clergy? A September Washington Post article
cited the figures of Baltimore therapist A.W. Richard Sipe, who, after 26
years of interviewing 1,000 priests, concluded that 20 percent of the
nation’s Catholic clergy are gay, half of those sexually active."

In view of the fact that there are more
than 50,000 priests in the United States, 20 percent would be 10,000
homosexual priests.

"Oregon Case Settled"

Associated Press October 11, 2000

The Roman Catholic Church in America has
already spent millions to settle lawsuits involving sex abuse by their
priests. They have now agreed to pay more millions. Both Catholic and
Protestant churches have covered up cases by quickly moving sex offenders
to different churches.

"Portland, Oregon—The church . .
agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to 22 men who said they had been molested
as far back as 50 years ago . . The amount of the settlement was kept
confidential by both sides. The men had sued for $44 million . .
Nationally, the church has spent millions to settle priest abuse cases
over the past decade . . [The article then discusses just two other cases
involving 56 victims, with awards totaling $169 million.]

"The lawsuits charged the church of
failing to notify parishioners of past molestations of boys, failure to
monitor his activities and advise authorities . ."

Presyterians Want Gay
Pastors

The problem is that, as homosexuals gain leadership
positions, they want to legislate protection for sodomite pastors. The
invasion of gays and lesbians into the ministry is affecting most
denominations. Here is the latest news on one crisis:

On June 15, 2001, a majority of the board of a major
Protestant denomination in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), generally
referred to as PCUSA, voted to remove all moral requirements from its
ordination standards! This was done so homosexuals, lesbians, and
fellow travelers can pastor PCUSA churches and instruct the adults and
children in "Christian living."

This year’s assembly met in Louisville, Kentucky, the
headquarters city of the liberal-led 2.4 million-member denomination. One
of the first actions was the election of Jack Rogers, 67, as moderator
(the top elective position, with a one-year term). He won with 55 percent
of the vote on the first ballot from a field of four candidates. Prior to
the voting, everyone knew his agenda was to get homosexuals accepted as
church pastors.

Rogers earlier had been a professor at Fuller Seminary,
which many of our own pastors in southern California have attended in
order to get their doctorates. He is also an adviser to the Covenant
Network, the largest unofficial PCUSA group dedicated to the ordination of
gays and lesbians.

The crucial vote over sodomites filled two hours of
heated floor debate, divided into two-minute speeches, during which the
conservatives pled that the denomination remain with morality and the
teachings of the Bible. But their liberal opponents demanded that
homosexuals be ordained as full-fledged pastors, as a "civil
rights" and "human rights" issue.

One of the two-minute speeches was by a young man who
said that, if the liberals won, it would be all right for an adulterer or
promiscuous single person to also be ordained. Any type of perversion
would be acceptable under the proposed rules change.

The very large assembly of delegates, totaling 560,
then cast their votes. By 317 to 208, the liberals won: First, they
removed a fidelity-in-marriage or chastity-in-singleness requirement from
the Presbyterian Book of Order. (It does not seem as if there is
much "order" left in that book.) Second, they nullified a
23-year-old official position, forbidding ordination of noncelibate
homosexuals.

Called the Confessing Church Movement, the conservative
congregations in PCUSA (with 150,000 Presbyterians) are not ignoring this.
They plan to meet in July to decide what they will do. One alternative is
to pull out entirely, but they will be ejected from their church
properties. Another is to get the majority to give their churches a "nongeographic
synod" status. This will enable them to maintain Christian standards
while continuing to use their PCUSA church properties.

The assembly board vote must still be ratified by 173 presbyteries. The
process may take a year, but conservatives say the situation does not look
good.